H. H. Gregg "H. H." (partially lost advertisements from American retail chain; 2009-2011)

A screenshot from one of the incomplete ads.

Status: Partially Lost

H. H. Gregg (stylized as "hhgregg") is an American then-retail chain, now-online store for home appliances and consumer electronics. From 2009 to 2011, the company used a mascot called HH (Also referred to as "h.h.") for its TV commercials, radio spots and other media. After H. H. Gregg's revival in 2017 from filing for bankruptcy previously the same year, HH was briefly used again on the company's social media and website, although no new commercials were made using him.

HH has the appearance of a rolled-up H. H. Gregg catalog with floating limbs similar in fashion to the video game character Rayman. The mascot was voice acted by Wally Wingert, who also played Jon Arbuckle in The Garfield Show and Almighty Tallest Red in Invader Zim. The television commercials mostly featured HH goofing around either inside or outside a H. H. Gregg store, announcing what the retailer has to offer. A common format within the commercials includes HH parodying classic songs like The Twelve Days of Christmas. Another common format starts with HH checking out an item, before a H. H. Gregg employee steps in to boast about the item; all while HH listens in awe. These usually end with HH asking the employee: "...Am I supposed to know this stuff?", to which the employee answers: "No, we are, at H. H. Gregg!".

Two renders of HH.

The character was largely forgotten about after its original run, until 2015, when the "Christmas in July Sale 2010" commercial gained attention from meme communities. The commercial features HH standing outside a H. H. Gregg store, singing to the melody of Deck the Halls about a Panasonic Blu-Ray for $99, a 32-inch LCD TV for $299, and an LG 42-inch HD TV for $489. HH then gets hit by a snowball, which he then promptly asks "A snowball in July?", before finishing his song. The commercial became commonly used in music mash-ups, such as one with the Daft Punk song Doin' It Right called "doin", which garnered more than half a million views on YouTube. Since gaining meme status, commercials starring HH became fairly sought after.

History

HH's character was made by Zimmerman Advertising and Hinge Digital. H. H. Gregg tasked Zimmerman to "center a campaign around a new spokes-character, to increase the aided and unaided awareness measures". After Zimmerman drew the initial 2D HH designs, they were handed over to Hinge, who refined the character and created an animation test showing HH interacting in a live-action store environment. The HH campaign was then greenlit by H. H. Gregg.

H. H. Gregg's old blog post about the mascot's introduction.

The mascot was first announced on H. H. Gregg's blog in July 28th 2009, stating that HH would be introduced "Wednesday afternoon" (the 29th). A Facebook account for the mascot called "h.h. Sales Guide" was also created on the 27th. The account would post in-character messages, occasionally sending a YouTube video link for the latest commercials (The videos themselves however are long since deleted). On the 29th, the first HH commercial was posted, called the "20% Off Sale Commercial". Sometime during 2010, the Facebook account would start posting more professional messages, and the account name was changed to simply "hhgregg".

HH's retirement can be linked to H. H. Gregg starting up another advertising campaign called "We Help". The campaign started around mid-May 2011. HH was slowly phased out of the website during this time period and the YouTube account was also wiped. No official statement on HH's retirement has been made by the company.

The last TV commercial to be caught on internet archives before the "We Help" campaign is the "33-Hour Sale" commercial for April 21-23th 2011. This is assumed to be the final commercial starring HH.

Availability

Interviews of Hinge and Zimmerman Advertising state that "over 34 spots" were created starring HH. Another production company, Blackbird VFX (named iGlooVFX at the time), created 5 additional commercials using HH during 2010, all already uploaded.

One of the identified lost ads is for an "after thanksgiving sale", in which HH connects an extension cord (which he manages to electrocute himself with) to power on a LED screen that reads out "hhgregg appliances & electronics - AFTER THANKSGIVINGS SALE". A clip of this survives by a disgruntled viewer, who uploaded the commercial with an edit that loops the electrocuting bit through the whole 30 seconds runtime.

HH also reportedly starred in radio spots. An user at CommercialsIHate.com claims to have heard a radio version of the Red Tag Sale 2009 commercial "about 12 times in the last 2 days". It is unknown how many of these were made.

As of August 6th 2019, 18 out of the 34+ TV commercials starring HH have been found. 2 other incomplete ones have been also found. A handful of lost commercials have been identified by searching through H. H. Gregg's Facebook page.

Name	Status	Notes
12 Deals of Xmas	Found
New 125th Store	Found	Created by iGlooVFX.
20% Off Sale #1/"On the Same Page"	Found	Facebook post for the ad.
20% Off Sale #2	Lost	Facebook post for the ad. The post implies HH says nothing more than "20% off" while wearing a hat.
20% Off Sale #3/"I'm Stuffed"	Found	Facebook post for the ad.
33-Hour Sale April 21-23 2011	Lost	Blog post about the ad. This is probably HH's last appearance.
4th of July Sale 2010	Lost	Facebook post for the ad.
After Thanksgivings Sale 2010	Partially Found	Edited by the uploader to loop a 1-second clip. Uploader stated in a now-deleted comment that he does not have the full ad anymore.
Baltimore, MD Grand Opening	Lost	Facebook post for the ad.
Christmas in July Sale 2010	Found
Confetti Fantasy\New Year's Event	Found
Coupon Mania 2009	Lost	Facebook post for the ad.
Employee Discount	Found	Created by iGlooVFX.
Frigidaire Infinity Washer	Found	Bad quality.
HH Private Sale	Found	Created by iGlooVFX. Possible Facebook post for the ad.
Markdown Madness Sale March 20-26 2011	Partially Lost	Facebook post for the ad. Low quality recording from a camcorder. ~1 second missing from the beginning.
Markdown Madness Sale March 21-27 2010	Found	Facebook post for the ad. Alternatively known as "Mark it Down".
Markdown Madness Sale June 20-26 2010	Lost	Facebook post for the ad. Probably a variant of the original.
Memorial Day Sale 2010	Lost	Facebook post for the ad.
New Whirlpool Washer & Dryer	Found	Created by iGlooVFX.
Panasonic "Larger Than Life" HDTVs	Found	Bad quality.
Panasonic Viera 3D TV	Found
Play Call	Found
Presidents' Day 2010 Sale	Lost	Facebook post for the ad.
Red Tag Sale 2009	Found
Samsung Four Seasons of Hope Foundation Commercial	Lost	Facebook post for the ad.
Serta Mattresses	Found	Created by iGlooVFX.
Sharp Quattron LED TV	Found
Super Sale XLIV	Lost	Facebook post for the ad.
Tent Sale 2010	Lost	Facebook post for the ad.
Whirlpool Cabrio Mark It Down	Lost	Facebook post for the ad.
Whirlpool Side-by-Side XXL Refridgerator	Found

Gallery

TV banner ad for H. H. Gregg's "Red Tag Sale" which uses HH.

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  Promotional picture for the Presidents' Day 2010 Sale found on the archived blog. The TV ad for this sale is missing.

External Link

• H. H. Gregg on Wikipedia. Retrieved 06 Aug '19